Global Warming Meets General Hospital

I actually “LOLed” when I read this earlier today. The Department of Energy is testing the potential of blasting a special glass into space to curb the effects of global warming.

The particles, consisting of a very fine and special form of glass - “porous-walled glass microspheres” - would be able to absorb a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and would reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

I thought it was interesting to see people using flip phones, which look interestingly like Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Treck”. These days, we also have something we can “set to stun” and shoot at a bad guy to incapacitate him. But to spend millions of dollars trying to recreate weather conditions in 1980 Port Charles is a little much for me.

Laura attempted to find Scotty, who had run off to Mexico, in order so that she could get a divorce and marry Luke. However Luke remained hostile towards Laura, even as Laura made several maneuvers to remain in Luke’s life. Laura decided that she had to show Luke that she had matured and thus moved out of her parents’ home and into an apartment, which just happened to be conveniently located in the same building as Luke’s apartment. Since Luke lived on a floor above Laura, he was forced to walk past her apartment everyday. This ensured that the two kept bumping into each other.

Luke eventually went to work for Edward Quartermaine and his niece Alexandria Quartermaine, who were in search of the Ice Princess, the world’s largest uncut diamond that had been spray-painted black and mounted on a base to be displayed as a statue. Luke promised the Quartermaines that he would get the statue before their rivals, the Cassadines could.

Eventually, Luke and Laura reconciled and decided to get married. Around the same time, World Security Bureau (WSB) agent Robert Scorpio had arrived in town and warned Luke that the Ice Princess mystery was far more serious than previously thought. Hidden inside the base of the statue was a formula that could create a substance called carbonic snow. The Cassadines planned on using carbonic snow in their sinister plot to take over the entire world. It was revealed that Alexandria was in league with the Cassadines and after the Ice Princess had made its way into the hands of several Port Charles citizens, Alexandria and the Cassadine brothers (Victor and Tony) finally got their hands on it and prepared to take it to Mikkos Cassadine, the eldest Cassadine brother (portrayed by sci-fi actor John Colicos).

Alexandria, Victor and Tony invited several guests on an ocean cruise aboard the Titan (Later the Haunted Star). As the Titan left Port Charles, Luke and Robert sneaked on board and were surprised when they found that Laura had also stowed away. Eventually, they arrived at Mikkos’ island in the Atlantic. Luke and Laura found the island a rather passionate setting and made several attempts to make love, only to be interrupted by Robert. Laura soon fell sick with a fever, and when Robert attempted to make Luke leave her behind, he refused and let Robert know that Laura was more important to him than their mission. Eventually Laura recovered and the three set about finding a way to stop the Cassadines.

Meanwhile, Mikkos unleashed his ultimate plan: he planned to hold the world to ransom. If world leaders did not accept his demands for total world domination, he would use his carbonic snow in his weather machine in order to send the Earth into a new ice age. In order to show that he was capable of doing this, he selected Port Charles as a test subject and soon the city was plunged into a blizzard — even though it was still summer. As temperatures in Port Charles continued to plummet, Mikkos managed to capture Luke, Laura and Robert. When his brother Tony and Alexandria Quartermaine expressed doubts about the plan, Mikkos had them killed.

Eventually Luke, Laura, Robert and B-movie actress Tiffany Hill managed to defeat Mikkos, and Luke was able to figure out the password in order to turn off Mikkos’ machine. In the course of the struggle, Mikkos was killed. Luke, Laura and Robert were thus hailed as heroes by the citizens of Port Charles.

Someone should tell the DOE that carbonic snow is the answer.